


happy father's day, joel

by cherubique



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Family Fluff, Father's Day, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherubique/pseuds/cherubique
Summary: The end of times might be upon them- but Ellie makes it an especial point to put together a little something for Joel, in honour of Father's Day.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 162





	happy father's day, joel

**Author's Note:**

> tlou2 infuriated me so much i wrote this. i love joel & ellie thank you very much. the song ellie is singing is ["gentle heart" by joshua hyslop.](https://youtu.be/qDoiMMXsWAc) cheers

There’s been rustling from upstairs all day- the patter of Ellie’s footsteps racing up and down the steps, the palm of her hand sliding against the bannister as she hops two, three steps at a time. Joel’s been sitting in the living room, working away steadily and quietly at making arrowheads, knapping the flint with callused hands and careful strikes. He turns over the chip of stone currently in his hands, eyeing it critically. It’ll do. Attaching them to shafts will come later. There’s catharsis in the careful repetition of this stage, the steady focus needed to balance and hone the faces properly. He’s been keeping an eye on her while working, in a half watchful way, tracking the blur of reddish brown hair and frenetic limbs as she zooms around. The heat of June has just settled in, and he’s more than content to remain put, his usual flannel set aside on the arm of the couch.

“Joel!” Ellie chirps, as she finally slides into the living room, bunching up the rug and nearly tripping on the piled up edge. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” she says, and he raises one dark eyebrow up in surprise. He wonders what the occasion might be. Wracking his brain for ideas doesn’t yield anything particularly useful. It’s definitely not his birthday. Ellie stomps the edge of the carpet back down smooth, kicking it a little like a soccer ball to flip over the edge, before turning back to him. 

“A surprise,” he says, and she nods, before trying to take him by the hand. He drops the still in progress arrowhead onto the little square of fabric he’d laid down to contain the mess, careful not to catch it’s sharpened edge on her fingertips. It lands with a bounce, but doesn’t thud to the floor. He counts that as a success. He squeezes her hand reassuringly as he takes it, then, and she just smiles at him.

Ellie’s using both hands to jokingly try to pull him up, like a puppy straining at it’s leash- and he accommodates, getting up. His joints creak a little as he does so, and Ellie rolls her eyes in impatience as his glacial speed, before tugging again. “C’mon, you’ll like it. It’s a present!” Joel ends up following behind her, Ellie looking over her shoulder every now and then to make sure that he’s still tagging along- throwing open the door to her bedroom. 

It’s connected to his- through a shared bathroom linking both rooms. Most nights, Joel will half wake up to Ellie’s light footsteps across the floorboards, her figure anxiously backlit by the bathroom lighting. She’ll stare down at him, as if to memorize him in place- make sure that he hasn’t up and left in the middle of the night. Her fingers will usually be in her mouth, chewing down on her nails, edges ragged and sometimes torn raw. 

Sometimes, that’ll be enough- and Ellie will creep back through the doorway to go slink into her own bed, sleeping fretfully through the night after having reassured herself that she isn't alone. The doors to the bathroom are almost always left open, propped up by a book or a random cinder block she picked up from the construction supplies. Other times, she wriggles beneath the covers, curling up against him, and he pretends to be fast asleep as he throws an arm over her, cradling the back of her head with the palm of his hand lightly as she tucks her face into the crook of his shoulder.

Her guitar is lying down carefully on the bed, and Ellie picks it up, sitting cross legged. She seems to be avoiding leaning back against her pillows. Joel thinks for a brief moment that he heard something rustle- but dismisses it. It’s probably just one of her comic books she’s stashed underneath the covers to read late at night. He usually checks in on her, to tell her to get some shut eye- _there’ll always be plenty of time to flip through in the morning, but you only get one set of eyes and teeth, Ellie, so it’s best to take good care of them._ It’s usually accompanied by him crossing his arms across his chest, skulking in the doorway watchfully. Ellie in turn, typically pulls a silly face and shovels the water wrinkled pages up underneath the pillow case, before yawning and flopping down dramatically to pretend to sleep. Usually she peeks one eye open- to be greeted with him looking right back at her, and she’ll snicker, before they exchange their _goodnights_ and Ellie dozes off for the night. 

It takes her a moment to position the guitar correctly, fingers plucking at the strings in warm up, brushing over them with calluses built up over their practice sessions. She pats the bedspread in front of her- and Joel lowers himself down onto the mattress, trying to be conscious of not jostling her too much with their disparity in weight. 

It sinks down a little, but Ellie only laughs. “Here, you should take this before either of us send it launching into the fucking stratosphere,” she jokes, handing him over a crinkly cellophane wrapped- honey bun? She’d pulled it out from behind her stack of pillows. The icing is still even mostly intact. He stares at it for a moment, a little in disbelief. Ellie winks. He realizes with a start that she must have snagged it from the jail commissary. That’s definitely a story that they’ll need to dig into- but not now, when Ellie is buzzing with excitement to play the guitar.

“Okay, I’ve been practicing this- so, listen,” she says, looking expectantly at Joel. He wonders where she found the time to sneak off and strum her way through chords on her own, but nods, trying his best to look attentive. The honey bun is set down to the side for now- he intends to split it in half with her, when they go back downstairs to his knapping setup and for her to watch TV, leaning against his arm as she peppers him with questions on this reference or that.

“Oh gentle heart,” she opens up, voice crackling a little, mouth dry from nerves. Ellie coughs, clears it- and continues, cheeks bright red. “You’ve come so far on your own- do not turn back, do not lose hope. Who can say how far is left to go?” The question lingers in between the both of them, as her fingers fumble with the strings, clumsy- but still assured, blustering through a dropped note or two.

Ellie’s voice is soft, as she sings, head bowed down as she focuses on her playing. She sneaks a glance up at Joel now and then, through the fringe of her hair- and he reaches out to tuck the loose strands falling into her face behind her ear for her. She laughs, grumbles about losing her place goodnaturedly, and picks up where she left off. 

“All the nights you’ve walked alone, you’ve followed lights to guide you home. Should the dawn refuse to rise, should the darkness close outside: oh, may you find your heart next to mine, for we found hope, in a hopeless time.” She’s focused, eyebrows pinched a little together, voice gentle and airy, letting the music carry itself as she circles around to the ending lines- “Oh, we found hope in a hopeless time, oh, we found hope in a hopeless time,” the lyrics petering out and the blur of her fingertips over the strings wrapping it all together. 

She plays for a little longer than necessary, but eventually her hands slow, coming to a stop. She lays her palm flat down against the strings, bringing them to a stand still. She pauses, putting the guitar off to the side- before lunging forwards and wrapping her arms around Joel. He grunts, a little startled- but cradles her close nonetheless, tucking her head underneath his chin. “You’re scratchy,” she jokes, even as she wriggles a little bit so that she can rest her head against his chest to listen to the steady ticking of his heart. 

“I’ll take your word for it,” he replies, sighing a little as he leans his back against the board at the foot of Ellie’s bed. She’s relaxed against him, quiet for the moment. “Thank you for the song,” he drawls, and Ellie hides a grin against the front of his shirt, before tilting her head up to look at him properly. “Really. It was nice,” he says, and they both know that that’s the understatement of the century, but something about the rough quality to his voice tells Ellie not to push it- emotion breaking through the backdrop of Joel’s usual composure.

“‘m glad you liked it. Happy Father’s Day, Joel,” she says. “I love you,” she continues, and there’s a twinge for a moment, the phantom sensation of cinching his watch overtop his wrist. After a tentative moment, he mirrors her smile, dropping a kiss to the crown of her head. One thumb brushes the curve of her cheek lightly.

“I love you too, Ellie,” he says softly.


End file.
